Game watching on tap for Panthers

MACON —- While most teams will start their 2009 football seasons on Sept. 5, Bill Curry has a plan for his Georgia State team, which won’t play its first game until 2010.

So Curry, borrowing from other coaches who started up programs at Florida Atlantic and South Florida, will scrimmage some on Saturdays, but then he will let the players go and watch football.

“[FAU’s Howard] Schnellenberger said, ‘Year 1 is fun, because you get to create it,’ ” Curry said at the annual Pigskin Preview in Macon on Tuesday.

‘It’s Year 2 when you have to get serious!’ “

Fun is back

It’s probably not quite what Justin Timberlake had in mind, but Georgia Southern’s Cole Fountain said third-year coach Chris Hatcher has made football in Statesboro enjoyable again.

“Instead of bringing the sexy back, he brought the fun back,” Fountain said. “He’s calm and relaxing. He’s young. He just remembers how it was when he plays. Everybody on the team loves him. He’s exciting to play for.”

While Hatcher said he’s flattered to hear the players enjoy playing for him, he’s going to focus on trying to mix his new recruits with a veteran team.

He has to replace two wide receivers and all of his defensive linemen from last season’s team. And playing in the tough Southern Conference won’t make it any easier for the Eagles.

“We’ve got to learn to make a play when the game’s on the line,” Hatcher said. “If we can start doing that, big things can be in store for this football team.”

Fountain said he doesn’t want to be one of the few classes who have left school without winning a title.

“This is my last season, my last rodeo,” Fountain said. “We want to put a ring on the finger.”

Healthy and ready

Clark Atlanta and Morehouse are healthy, deeper than they’ve been and ready for the season.

Panthers coach Ted Bahhur, whose team went 3-8 last season, said Clark is going to benefit from five Division I-A transfers on the offensive line.

Last year the line was eight-deep. This year, Bahhur said they will go 15-deep.

“I’m really banking on these guys to really walk in and take the program to the next level,” he said.

Morehouse coach Rich Freeman said he lost a lot of key players from last season’s 6-4 squad, but luckily his team is deep, as well.

Freeman thinks the key will be a better running game, after they averaged 42 yards a game last season.

Part of that is because they have Ramon Harewood, a 6-foot-8, 340-pound offensive tackle, whom Freeman said is their best NFL prospect. The other reason is quarterback William Brack, who went 3-0 in his three starts last season.

“He’s very talented and smart,” Freeman said. “Looking for leadership on the field that we didn’t have last year.”